But Villas-Boas is set to continue his pattern of playing one up front at the Etihad in Sunday's crunch clash, and he claims he is leaning towards a first appearance of the season as the loan striker for Adebayor against his former club.

The Spurs boss said: "Ade alone or with another striker is a great player. You don't need to teach him a lot. He knows how to behave in the different systems.

"We have two performing strikers at the moment in Soldado and Defoe. Obviously Ade hasn't had chance to get back into the team yet but I am sure that whenever that happens he will perform as well as the other ones.

"The three of them are competing extremely well in training and so our likely approach is to go with one up front.

"Its a decision I have to take regarding which one I will choose. They are very, very near each other at the moment and it can be a possibility that even Ade could play that game.

"So everything is decisions we have to take. We do not have reasons at the moment not to trust Soldado and Defoe because they have been excellent with great performances and goals. A great goal tally at the moment.

"But hopefully its a decision that's best for the team and best for the strategy."